The Earl of Sandwich restaurant in Downtown Disney makes a great Thanksgiving Special: turkey, gravy, stuffing, mayo and cranberry sauce on a toasted roll. I nearly choke on mine when my Disney pal Matt says, “We want to bring back the Dreamfinder.”

I cough, collect myself, and ask, “Who is ‘We’?”

“D23, the Official Disney Fan Club, is planning a weekend in May of next year to celebrate Walt Disney World’s 40th anniversary. The finale will be a concert of music from the parks starring Richard Sherman; we want Dreamfinder and Figment to honor Richard and surprise the D23 Members by showing up to sing One Little Spark with him.”

I gotta admire his guts. “A brilliant idea. It will never happen.”

# # # # #

May 15th, 2011

My best friend Josh and I cut through the crowd trying to act casual – in spite of being the only people at the D23 Event who have arrived with luggage; a suit bag, a wig box and a large blue sack.

At last we make it to the dressing room, tucked in a distant corner of the Contemporary Resort Convention Center. We drop our bags and make sure everything looks as innocuous as possible.

We head in the back way to the ballroom. For the past few days this space has been filled with thousands of rabid Disney Fans attending speeches and presentations about Walt Disney World (WDW), its history, its future and the people who made it happen. Just now, though, the room is sealed tight for this rehearsal. It’s the only chance the performers will get to run through tonight’s concert in the actual space before the doors are opened in less than two hours.

I recognize Denny Zavett, long-time featured talent on the Empress Lilly Steamboat, and several retired Kids of the Kingdom looking impossibly young and fit. There are dozens of Cast Choir members and musicians and a squadron of Disney Stage Techs swarming over the space, setting up lights and mics for the coming event.

Matt greets me and introduces me to the Stage Manager – one of the few people who know what we’re up to. He gives me my mic pack and sits me down to wait for my chance to rehearse.

On stage, Disney Historian Tim O’Day is by the grand piano, watching over Richard Sherman: one half of the team behind Mary Poppins and decades of Disney music. They spot me from the stage and wave.

At last they’re wrapping up their review of the songs Richard will share. They’ve done this dozens of times; the rehearsal has been, more than anything, a chance for them to coordinate their patter with the media that will fill the huge screens onstage. I’m guided to my spot off right as the crew cues up the video that will introduce my bit with Richard, a rarely seen video of the 1983 dedication of the Journey Into Imagination ride.

I stand in place, bathed in the light coming from the screen towering beside me. This is a clip I’ve never seen… that’s me, much younger and thinner, climbing out of a carriage, as nervous as I’ve ever been and facing the press, the public and the executive boards of Walt Disney Productions and Kodak for the first time. As my cue to step onstage approaches I hear myself in the video singing One Little Spark to a pre-recorded track twenty-eight years ago:

Two tiny wings, eyes big and yellow… horns of a steer, but a lovable fellow…

The video sound cuts out and my mic goes live as I stroll onstage, singing the new lyric I’ve written for this occasion in the voice originated by Chuck McCann, inspired by Frank Morgan and recreated by me since 1982:

He is my best imaginary friend… and just like that — we’re back again!

There is a gasp from everyone in the room as they hear that voice for the first time since the original Journey Into Imagination closed in 1998. I’m in my own clothes – no blue suit, no curly red beard and no dragon – but everyone is looking at me with wonder as, with a rush of emotion, they realize the Dreamfinder is back.

It’s a moment that catches everyone, especially me, by surprise. Those involved in our little scheme knew we’d create a sensation among the fans, but we hadn’t expected this reaction from the cast at rehearsal.

We finish the run-through and hurry back to the dressing room just as they start letting the crowd in. The performers backstage are swapping stories of where they’ve been and what they’ve done since leaving Disney. Pictures of grandchildren (!) are shared between Kids of the Kingdom and everyone reminisces about stage shows and commercial shoots back in the ’70s and ’80s.

So on with the suit. Not the original, but a clever recreation. Damn, I’ve put on weight since I was measured for it months ago. Then the rouge and lipstick. I flash back to the parade in Miami where I met the Burger King, another corporate mascot sporting a red beard and wig; we compared notes on shades of lipstick and brands of spirit gum.

The mustache next. This is the only part I have to glue on. Then the beard, held in place by elastic straps that are covered by the wig. Folks always want to know why I would shave my own beard for the job, never realizing that if I used my real beard as Dreamfinder I’d have had to sleep with my face in curlers every night. No, thank you.

Finally the hat and coat and there he is on my left again; the little purple demon who could take my mind off my itchy face even while causing my thumb to cramp up. We look at each other as we always did. He silently greets me and I tell him what’s going to happen – Figment’s reaction to any new experience is always the same: he curls himself into my chest until I can pry his head out to where he can see what’s happening; then he’s fine, like any curious child who just happens to have orange horns and scales.

I and my entourage of Josh and my costumer, make our way through the kitchen to the space behind the stage. I can hear Richard Sherman out front explaining the genesis of There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow. Matt is at his post, supervising the projections; he flashes me an excited smile. The Cast Choir is seated nearby and as I hurry past they quietly react to seeing Figment and I together; strange, since I can’t imagine many of these young people would be old enough to remember who we used to be.

We stretch out in the VIP lounge, used by the guest speakers that day; it’s just us now. Josh plays stage mother, running around to check our time, fetching me water and taking pictures. For the most part I’ve switched over to the reflective mood I used to maintain between sets as Dreamfinder in the ’80s. It just seems natural at this moment to sit as I used to at the make-up mirror, thinking about the job and the years and the road that brought me back here. To this place, with That Dragon…

While interacting with theme park guests, a performer is apt to hear the same three or four comments from just about everyone they meet. After all, the guests are reacting to the same thing in the same environment… and people really are the same all over.

These days, although I’m no longer on the job, I hear the same comment from almost everyone: “When are they going to bring back the Dreamfinder?”

And I keep trying to ‘pivot’ (a term I’ve learned in these politically-charged times) to a more realistic and relevant topic: “When are we going to see a new character who can engage and inspire us the way Dreamfinder did?”

Well, the search is over. I’ve found her; someone whose story serves as an inspiring example of how the individual spirit within us can make our lives more fulfilling and our world a better place.

And she’s a red head.

The star of Disney/Pixar’s Brave is a rebellious young princess who refuses to yield to the limiting expectations of her family. When she refuses to acquiesce to their plans for her future, she learns about choice, consequences and what it means to love unconditionally.

When we first meet Merida she is already a princess with considerable charm and talent. She is an accomplished horseman and archer who is just starting to come into her own as a member of the royal family.

But the life path her parents have planned for her doesn’t suit her. She rebels early in the film, and the challenges that follow test her resolve and their patience.

Coming out of the cinema I was struck by the courage it took for the folks at Pixar to take on such a story. Like Merida, they were challenging the expectations of those who loved them… their fans, who had come to expect certain things from a Pixar film. In that sense, choosing to tell this story was brave indeed.

# # # # #

My next thought was about the lucky ladies who would bring Merida to life in the Disney parks.

They have been handed a wonderful opportunity. Not merely to meet millions of fans, sign thousands of autographs and appear in an unimagined number of cherished photos. These women have it in their power to change lives…

If we give them just a little time.

Of course Merida’s time is precious and will be regulated by the Disney character machine and its minions. There will be a line of people, parents with agendas and children with doubts and fears and questions… and all must be handled efficiently, so as to satisfy everyone’s needs as quickly as possible.

But, as the storytellers at Pixar would tell you, Merida has more to share with the children she meets than just her image and signature.

I hope Merida finds something in each group that relates to the themes in her story. If a child steps up by themselves, commend their bravery. If they’re wearing something that makes them stand out from the rest of the family, remark on their rugged individualism.

If the child carries a weapon, encourage the group to praise the child’s skill in protecting them from marauders. Perhaps a younger sibling or a stuffed animal can be identified as something the child captured and tamed in their travels.

Parents are usually delighted to step up and participate in these mind games. (I was standing in line at the Main Street Candy Co. years ago behind a father and daughter; she was wearing a princess gown, a pirate hat and an eye patch. When I asked Dad whether she was a princess or a pirate, he whispered, “She’s a blond.”)

By engaging the group Merida is not only setting them up with a premise that can play itself out over the course of the day, but she’s also amusing the next few groups waiting in line. They’ll appreciate the diversion, and it may inspire them to kick start the next interaction using their own imaginations.

# # # # #

One of the things I miss most about my days dreamfinding were those moments I shared with a child exclusive of the rest of their group. The times they could tell I was there for them exclusively and personally… that I saw wonders in them the others hadn’t spotted yet. Walt used to make me feel like that when I watched him on TV growing up. I loved passing that on to the kids I met; and, judging by the way Dreamfinder is remembered decades later, it must have stuck.

Merida, I envy you this new opportunity to engage the guests and inspire the children you’ll meet. Don’t let the lowered expectations of those who see you only as a ‘photo op’ deny you this thrill…

I’ve been shifting things around on the ol’ blog, preparing for the upcoming (really!) publication of ‘From Dreamer to Dreamfinder’ – the Book.

As I’ve stated before, this blog was my way of tricking myself into completing the book I’ve been promising to write for the last few years. By focusing on turning out a page or two at a time I was able to overcome my procrastination and, seven months later, wound up with the first draft of my memoir/textbook in hand.

Much reorganization and rewriting have ensued… so I’ve been winnowing out earlier posts that have since been reordered and expanded. What’s left online will hopefully whet your appetite for the finished work, due in July.

Meanwhile, the arduous task of editing has progressed slowly, assisted by the staff of Bamboo Forest Publishing – who have shown terrific patience with and enthusiasm for this fledgling author.

The good folks of D23 have recently announced a special event planned for September 30th at WDW to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the opening of Epcot. One way or another I hope to be a part of the festivities, and hope to meet many of you on that celebratory weekend.

In the meantime I’ll be around making personal appearances and doing online interviews to promote the book. I hope you enjoy what you find on the blog and will stick around to see what’s coming…

(Some material is excerpted from Ron’s upcoming book: From Dreamer to Dreamfinder: A Life (and Lessons Learned) from 40 Years Behind a Name Tag)

A few months ago, I saw this guy on some fan video clips, telling stories about his experience as Dreamfinder at EPCOT Center. I found his blog, and learned that not only was he Dreamfinder, he was THE FIRST Dreamfinder, the very first actor to don the purple suit, hold Figment, and greet guests, the press, and celebrities alike. From 1982-1987, Ron set the standard for the first park-specific duo of walk-around characters to be specifically linked to EPCOT.

As I read his blog and learned more about the man, I also learned that his Disney credits include being the voice of Dreamfinder for a portion of the scenes within the original Journey Into Imagination darkride, the voice of the conductor for Mickey’s Birthday land Express (with portions of his audio used in later incarnations of the train script and with style and wording even duplicated by later voice actors), work with the cast of Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue, and most recently one of the writers and characters on the opening crew for the Monsters Incorporated Laugh Floor (one of the first to play Buddy Boil).Further digging into Ron’s career, I learned that he was there for the opening of (Six Flags) Magic Mountain as well as part of two early area expansions, worked as a guide on the original Universal Studios Hollywood Backlot Tour, was a manager for the opening of several themed restaurants and an actor at many more, and even managed the first celebrity look-alikes at Universal Studios Florida. Halloween and related attraction experience includes being a part of Magic Mountain’s first Halloween event, writing two shows for the first-ever Universal Halloween Horror Nights, and both acted at and wrote the Ghost Tour script for Orlando’s Titanic: The Experience. He even worked with friends on the original Skull Kingdom crew.

Ron is still active in the Orlando area as a writer, consultant, and performer. He was nice enough to sit down with the Handa family and share some of his experiences, allowing me to pose even more questions to him based upon our meeting. In a few brief months I learned more useful information about “Themed Entertainment”, how it relates to our love of dark attractions, and the direction in which it is going than I have in my years of both being a park fan and working for a haunted attraction. We can look forward to reading more from Ron on his blog as well as in an upcoming book. Until then, please enjoy reading my “13 questions” posed to the original Dreamfinder, Ron Schneider:

Chris Handa – What made you want to start a career involving work with amusement parks?

Ron Schneider – As a child I was fascinated with magic and puppetry and started performing at an early age. It was the theatricality of the Disneyland environment that attracted me, the idea that the paying guest was the star on a living stage and the show wasn’t ‘Disneyland’; it was ‘Your Experience of Disneyland’.I came to realize that such an environment calls for a new and different kind of acting, one that focuses, not simply on character or story, but on the guest’s perception and participation. I became determined to learn how that process worked, how you create an environment that tells a story and inspires the guest to participate – physically, intellectually & emotionally. Since I couldn’t find any books or classes on the subject, I realized I’d have to do my own research – by working and performing and studying in the parks themselves.

CH – What challenges did you face when entering into positions involving more responsibility, especially at a younger age?

RS – Long before I was ever hired to perform in the parks I had been studying them for years, and so it felt very natural the first time I stepped up to a microphone at Magic Mountain or took the stage at Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe. Then, when I transitioned to writing and directing, my performing experience helped me trust my instincts as to what would work and why.

Most of the time I was hired in to solve a creative problem or fill a need for a specific talent, so the people who hired me were happy let me make creative decisions. The challenge came from others – both executives and co-workers – who either wanted credit for what I had created or who had no respect for the themed experience, for the cast members, for the story being told or for the guests. People like that will tend to rely on what has worked in the past rather than try to find the creative solutions that will address the new challenges every project presents.

Whatever other challenges I might have faced were easily conquered by the nature of the business. Since what we were doing was fun, folks were happy to pitch in and contribute their best work as long as I let them know they were a valued part of the process. That’s what Walt Disney did and I’ve found that it still works today.

CH – Can you share a little of your experience as a voice actor for attractions?

RS – Like any performer, I started by imitating what I admired. I learned all the Disneyland narrations back in the sixties and seventies, so I was familiar with what worked in those venues.When I was put in front of my first microphone I parroted a lot of that material, but – like a stand-up comic – I gradually tried my own stuff while watching and listening to see what worked with the guests. I learned to be a ruthless editor of my own material – if it didn’t get a laugh or the reaction I was looking for, I’d cut it out.

Being able to recreate the sound of the Dreamfinder for the attraction got me my first recording job. While I was in the studio, I carefully messed around, just a bit, to let the people I was working with know that I was capable of doing more than the one voice.

Back at home, I was always practicing my cold reading skills so I could pick up any kind of copy and quickly give an intelligent reading. That skill, along with being pleasant and flexible and being able to take direction got me a lot of work through the years.

The most important thing in narrating for the parks is to develop a warm ‘real’ delivery. Too many performers start by over-modulating their voice, developing a pattern of inflection they think will give their reading life and energy. Listen to them for any length of time and all you hear after a while is their inflection; like listening to Charlie Brown’s teacher in the cartoons – a rhythmic pattern with no content.Instead, think of your audience as a close friend who’s sitting next to you in a moving car. Speak warmly and intimately, and focus on communicating the ideas in the copy rather than the words.

CH – What changes have you seen in attractions over your many years, especially from the position as an actor and writer?

RS – The changes I’ve seen tend to be technology-related: new ride systems, projection systems, and pyrotechnics. In my field of live performance, the major parks still rely primarily on the musical revue, the walk-around character and variety performers (jugglers, puppeteers, mimes, and acrobats). At Disney and Universal parks, you’ll always see the re-telling of a story from a movie and what has come to be known as ‘streetmosphere’ – face characters, improv troupes and wacky tourists.

Occasionally a truly unique performer or character will slip through and make an impression, but they are the welcome exception. Dreamfinder was one such, not because of anything we did as performers, but because of the strong connection between the concept of EPCOT Center in the eighties, the Journey into Imagination ride story and the characters. Each expanded on and reinforced the other.

Disney tried putting live actors in The Great Movie Ride but could only take the experiment so far. The most exciting work being done in atmosphere entertainment I find is at regional Renaissance Faires, where the interactive performers write and manage (and fend for) themselves, and in interactive guided experiences like ‘Titanic the Experience’ in Orlando or ‘5 Wits’ in the Boston area.

CH – “Themed Entertainment” is a niche that we may not necessarily think about when we are looking at the nuts-and-bolts operation of dark attractions. What is your definition of “Themed Entertainment” in relation to these experiences?

RS – Students who are assigned to write a ‘theme paper’ are asked to expound upon one particular idea. A ‘themed’ experience does the same thing; all the elements in an attraction are focused to put across a single story or feeling. In the themed show the designer or storyteller deals creatively with operational realities, so all the technical elements disappear in service of the story being told.Dark attractions are, by their very nature, themed… that’s why they’re dark. We use those nuts-and-bolts to create an environment that, once the lights are out, transcends its reality to become a personal experience for the riders.

CH – After reading about your experience and meeting you, it is clear that seasonal entertainment in relation to year-round venues has been a part of your career going all the way back to Magic Mountain. Can you share a little about your experience with seasonal experiences within the larger scope of a year-round tourist destination?

RS – My experience with seasonal events have been unique because the ones I’ve worked on have been inaugural creations, where a park is trying – for the first time – to create something new out of an existing operation. Everything we created those first years was accomplished by in-house talent so we were feeling our way, doing what we thought would be fun.

Our first Halloween at Magic Mountain the holiday theming was restricted to the Spillikin Corners Crafts Village. I was assigned to animate a suit of armor located next to the blacksmith’s forge; this meant I had to stand in a large plywood box behind the armor and pull a rope that would raise one arm of the suit, hopefully startling nearby guests. In this job lasted exactly 15 minutes before I walked away, looking for some other way to contribute to the event.I wound up putting on a black robe and grabbing a giant rubber rat. I asked the blacksmith to fashion me a long fork… and I wandered slowly through the village with the fork in my hand and a smile on my face – chewing on the rat’s rubber head. Made quite an impression, especially on the ladies.

12 years later I got to write and direct the shows for Universal Studios Florida’s first Halloween event, called Universal Studios’ Fright Nights. Everything we did had to be foraged from what we already had. By combining the abandoned sets from Psycho 4, our Beetlejuice look-alike and our musical Blues Brothers act with some pyro and a chainsaw we created a totally new show, the Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue.

CH – Can you name a few things that most of us as park fans don’t think about in terms of working day to day as a park employee or manager?

RS – A big challenge of any job is dealing with repetition; the folks at “World Wide Wickets” must crank out so many hundreds of wickets every day to remain in business. Now imagine what would happen if every one of those wickets was in danger of having its feelings hurt?In the attraction business we don’t deal with inanimate wickets, we’re dealing with human beings with egos, expectations, special needs and ulterior motives; and we have to do it one person at a time. This takes tremendous discipline to keep the show fresh, especially when the weather hits or the crowds turn ugly.

The challenge for a manager is even harder… they have to manage the people who manage the people. But the manager of a new attraction has one valuable asset in this effort: the momentum of opening. The new cast, pulling together to get the fledgling park up and running, is unified and focused in a way they may never be again.The smart manager will seize on that feeling, will nurture it and keep it alive long past opening. You can’t buy goodwill like that… and it’s harder than hell to recapture it once it’s gone. I was fortunate to work at Disneyland in the early eighties, before the coming of the Eisner regime. The people who ran the park were still the folks who had worked under Walt and that feeling of doing it for him was still very much alive.

Later, when I was working at EPCOT Center, the focus changed. We were told in no uncertain terms that we were expected to generate 20% annual growth. Fiscal success is a wonderful business plan, but it’s a lousy incentive for generating good customer service and employee morale.

CH – You’ve been a part of many “firsts” from the opening of several destinations to seeing the iconic Dreamfinder opening animatronic in its production phases. To what do you attribute to being involved on such an intimate level with so many fledgling projects?

RS – There can be no argument that – when it comes to the wide variety of jobs I’ve had and the challenges I’ve faced – I’ve been outrageously lucky. I was born in Southern California in September of 1952, greatly increasing the odds that I would be, as I was, in attendance on Disneyland’s first day of regular operation.I was the perfect age to open and grow with Magic Mountain Amusement Park, and used that experience to make me the perfect candidate for Universal Studios and Disneyland in 1980… and so on and so on throughout my life.

Of course, there was more involved than timing; there was the very human instinct to Follow My Bliss. The love of theater, of performing, of magic and puppetry and Disneyland drove me from a young age to acquire the knowledge and experience I’d need when I was finally presented with those opportunities.

The final thing I would need to realize my dreams was the people… the wonderful friends, family and fellow performers, competitors and collaborators, teachers and employers who would cheer me on, boost me up, tutor and challenge and give me a break. In that, I was unendingly lucky.

CH – The “names” you have worked with, particularly within the amusement industry, are pretty impressive. Can you share any of the interactions that have been major influences through the years?

RS – Once again, timing meant everything; I seemed to stumble on the right people at the best possible times. I met Disney Studio Archivist Dave Smith just as the Archives was starting, so I was the first lucky outsider to tour the archives, long before everything was locked away behind glass and file cabinets. I got to handle the cels of Mickey’s debut cartoon, Steamboat Willie and page through the giant storybooks that opened each of the Disney Classic Animated Features. Dave’s been a great friend since 1971.Being discovered by Jay Stein, President of MCA Attractions, just as he was looking for a figurehead for his $3 million theme restaurant Womphopper’s Wagon Works was very lucky and led to creative positions in both Hollywood and Orlando.

Coming in to the Disney family when Sonny Anderson & Ronnie Rodriguez were managing the Talent booking department was lucky; they really made you feel appreciated and supported in your work. The star of Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue, Wally Boag, was a wonderful inspiration all my life. Then, when I was hired to understudy Wally, I got to work with the lovely Betty Taylor and the amazing Fulton Burley. Through thousands and thousands of performances of the Golden Horseshoe show, they kept it fresh and funny; I learned so much from watching and working with them.

It was surely the luckiest day of my life when I happened to attend a seminar by Tony Baxter about careers in Disney Imagineering, where he shared a picture of Dreamfinder & Figment, the new characters created for EPCOT Center. Soon after, Tony sat me down and shared the characters’ history and inspiration, gifting me with one of the best roles I’d ever have.

CH – A lot of what you have mentioned and written about includes the loss of control over a concept, script, or even overall presentation. When is this good thing as a part of the development process and when does it weaken the product presented to the guests?

RS – Since we are creating living environments that are meant to be experienced by paying guests, loss of control is inevitable.Whatever we do isn’t finished until you open the door and let the public in. Only by watching, listening to and accommodating the guest can any attraction reach its full potential and hope to be around for the long haul.

The best jobs I’ve ever had or managed thrived in an atmosphere of benign neglect. By hiring the right people, training them properly, letting them know they are appreciated and then encouraging their creative efforts, I’ve seen the people working for me do more and better work than I could do myself. I stressed to my people at Universal Studios Hollywood & Florida that I was their biggest fan and they repaid me with great work and good times.

CH – Where do you see Themed Entertainment having the most influence upon dark attractions in the future?

RS – Theming has been influencing dark attractions since the days of Coney Island, when indoor attractions were first used to tell a coherent story. Back then, the popular culture relied on books and newspapers for diversion, so attractions were based on the works of Jules Verne and Dante and spectacles recreated news events of the day or exotic locales.

Disneyland was partly inspired by the requests Walt Disney received from the public to let them come to the studio and see how the animated cartoons were made. Instead, he used dark rides to put the guests in the cartoons. In the years that followed these environmental attractions grew more artistically and technologically sophisticated.

Where a family on Snow White’s Scary Adventures might be startled and amused by the experience, the feelings created in the Pirates of The Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion are more subtle.I think this evolution is still in its infancy. As this generation of theme park designers and dark ride fans mature, they’ll find ever more potent and exciting ways to tell stories and thrill the guests.

CH – What do you feel is your biggest influence upon the legend and legacy of the original Journey into Imagination and EPCOT Center?

RS – Inspired by the ideas presented in the Journey Into Imagination attraction and all of EPCOT Center, I was determined not to let the characters of Dreamfinder & Figment be reduced to just another photo opportunity; I used my interaction with the guest to illustrate and involve them in the creative process.I borrowed a page from the Imagination Ride, treating the people we encountered as sparks of inspiration – they became objects for study. When I would ask a small child, “What are you?” their carefully considered response was a delight to see and made an impression on them and the folks they were traveling with. Thus, I was able to capture and stimulate the imaginations of the children and families I encountered.

That the Dreamfinder & Figment are still fondly remembered and inspiring to people is a tribute to Tony Baxter and the Imagineers who created all of EPCOT Center in the eighties. That was a special place with a powerful theme and mission that has been diluted in recent years by the desire to make the park all things to all people. Back then, it was ‘An Inspiration Park’. The world could certainly use such a place now.

CH – Please share any information that you care to divulge in relation to current and upcoming projects, as well as anything that you would like that I may have missed in the previous questions.

RS – I’m working on a concept for a new themed dinner attraction that will be a comical twist on the notion of the ‘character meal’. I’ve hooked up with a talented business partner and we hope to have something that will surprise Central Florida theme park fans and visitors early in 2013. I’m putting the finishing touches on a combination memoir and textbook, about live themed entertainment, From Dreamer to Dreamfinder: A Life (and Lessons Learned) from 40 Years Behind a Name Tag that should be available within the year!Excerpts from the book – and my own editorial musings about the attraction industry – can be found online at http://www.dreemfinder.wordpress.com.

The way I hear it, the day after the original Kodak ride closed in 1998 there was a guy wandering around the pavilion asking guests to sign his petition to ‘Bring Back Dreamfinder & Figment!’

Now it’s 14 years later and the campaign hasn’t slowed one bit. Grown men are still getting up at the annual Disney stockholder meetings to demand the return of the Imagination ride and characters, in spite of Walt Disney’s admonition: After film distributors pleaded with Disney for a sequel to ‘The Three Little Pigs’ the two sequels bombed, leaving Walt to observe, “You can’t top pigs with pigs.”

As we’ve seen, Dreamfinder & Figment will never really go away as long as there are pin collectors and Vinylmation left in the world. And in the years since I’ve retired from Disney I’m grateful to be remembered for my involvement in the creation of the strolling characters. I still miss the time I spent working with Figment and playing with the children and families we met.

BUT please, everybody, let’s remember the lesson of King Midas and be careful what we wish for.

# # # # #

The original ‘Journey Into Imagination’ was inspired by EPCOT Center’s mission statement, the wishes of its corporate sponsor and the genius of Tony Baxter & company. It defined and demonstrated the creative process… it credited the guests’ imaginations… and it introduced two vivid, complex and exciting new characters who carried that message out of the attraction and brought it home to visitors in a new and novel manner.

Then it was removed. To this day, I don’t know why and I don’t expect I ever will. Marty Sklar told us at EPCOT Center’s 25th anniversary that it was Kodak that did it; that’s all he’d say. I’ve heard the turntable was screwing itself into the ground. That was the reason given back in ’84 when the ride closed for a few days for technical reasons, so that at least has some resonance. And I heard rumors that someone in management didn’t care for Dreamfinder… but as I say, we’ll never know.

The ‘Journey Into Your Imagination’ was a disaster. I like to think that at some point there was a coherent story there and that budget concerns caused that to be pared away to what we wound up getting – a collection of disparate, desperate effects with no recognizable theme or story. No wonder the public raised a stink – the JIYI got more negative response than anything in Disney Imagineering history.

Out of that angry mob rose the ‘Fans of Figment’, who led the campaign to bring the dragon back. Armed with a potent nostalgia for what once was and a certainty that they knew best they wished and pleaded and whined for ‘more pigs’.

Seeking a quick fix, the company dusted off the Figment figures from the late, lamented ‘Journey’ and saddled some poor fellow with the task of writing a story that could tie them in with what was already up and running.

The thing that made Figment such a winner in the old ride was the respect and affection we felt for him, a reflection of the paternal feelings expressed by Dreamfinder. We identified with Figment… his journey was ours and we felt pride in what he – and we – could dream and manifest in our lives. This was the true message of the original ride:

“Imagination is something that belongs to all of us.” – Dreamfinder

But in the third version, things are different. The ‘Journey Into Your Imagination with Figment’ begins in front of a wall of computers that measures our creativity and promises to stimulate our imagination.

Thus reassured we are introduced to Dr. Nigel Channing. Where Dreamfinder was delighted to demonstrate how Imagination works, Nigel is proud to show off his Institute. And where Dreamfinder lovingly crafted Figment from the sparks of inspiration, Nigel tells Figment to go away, he’s a pest. So Figment proceeds to prove him right throughout the remainder of the ride, acting out the role of ‘pest’ that Dr. Channing saddled him with.

Why? Because casting the little fellow as a pest is easy to write. Because the lazy writer thinks that casting the sidekick as an annoyance is ‘cute’ (see the post, ‘Writing Great Themed Shows 3: Make Me Laugh’). Remember how fond we all were of C3PO after seeing ‘Star Wars IV: A New Hope’? And how annoying he seemed in ‘Empire Strikes Back’? And all it took to change our minds was Leia and Han treating him like a nuisance in the second film.

So Figment keeps disrupting the tour and annoying the good Doctor, who, frankly, was annoying enough without the bad attitude. Figment sprays us with skunk scent and shows us a toilet.

At the finish we’re back in front of the bank of computers. There’s a quiet moment here, while we roll into position. On a recent ride-through I was accompanied by some very bright children and in this peaceful moment I asked them, “Well, kids, what did we learn today?”

And in splendidly loud and enthusiastic unison, they shouted, “Nothing!”

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I’m scared to think what begging for Disney to ‘Bring Back Dreamfinder’ might get us, because I’ve seen what the whining of Figment’s Friends got us the last time. Sure, there is much that Dreamfinder could do today, but I’d be afraid to trust him to anyone who doesn’t understand what made him work in the first place.

Instead of bringing back Dreamfinder, let’s pray they bring back what he stood for. Let us hope for a return of the message, “Imagination is something that belongs to all of us,” even if it means crafting new guides who will respect and care for us the way Tony Baxter and Kodak did thirty years ago.

I have faith that somewhere in the depths of Glendale Imagineering there is a locked room with plans for the new Journey. And I’m content to wait until the budget’s right and the room’s unlocked and new sparks fly!

Hello there! Yes, your Friendly Neighborhood Dreamfinder is still here and still writing… in fact I have just finished the memoir portion of my upcoming book, now titled:

From Dreamer to Dreamfinder – A Life (and Lessons Learned) in 40 Years Behind a Nametag

There’s still much to do; my manly editorial staff is poring over the manuscript as I write this, looking for typos, factual errors and trying to determine which stories are most likely to result in lawsuits from former employers. And the appendices are going to be extensive. That is where I hope to present the principles of writing and performing live themed entertainment that have served me (and others) so well.

I’ve removed many of my earlier biographical posts from the blog, since the writing in the book is much better; the stories are much more detailed and will give a greater feeling for what happened and how it felt to be there.

And if you’re staying in one of the Deluxe Resorts and pay an additional $250, I’ll send you a ‘Next Gen’ copy of the book, featuring a picture of me with eyes that follow you as you move around the room and will say your name when you open it! (Parking not included) (kidding)